Start ’em young: WIPO unveils children’s copyright law workbook

A new educational project from the World Intellectual Property Organization …

The World Intellectual Property Organization wants to educate you about copyright. Well, not so much you as your 9 to 14-year old children, who are the targets of a new 72-page workbook (PDF) filled with "colorful examples" of copyright law in action. The most surprising thing about the booklet? The fact that it devotes eight pages to coverage of the public domain and other limitations on copyright.

The booklet is called "Learn from the Past, Create the Future" and is designed to be used in school classrooms. It's only available in English at the moment, but Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish versions are all coming. The book is peppered with amusing (*cough*) games for kids to play, including "Clear the Rights," "Public Domain Detective," and "Spot the Infringement."

Unlike Captain Copyright and similar past efforts to educate kids, the WIPO document actually covers both sides of the equation. Public domain works get several pages of explanation, though the booklet rightly notes that finding something available for free on the Internet doesn't mean it's in the public domain.

Fair use even gets some love. "National laws allow works protected by copyright and related rights to be freely used in special situations," the booklet says. "In other cases, national laws allow works to be used without asking the right holder for permission as long as he is compensated for such use. Thanks to these copyright limitations, even works that are not in the public domain can sometimes be used without asking for permission or paying royalties to the author or other right holders."

That's refreshing to see, but the approach is still not without its critics. William Patry, senior copyright counsel at Google, praises the balance shown by the document but questions the use of "Young Author" profiles scattered throughout the book. The small snippets highlight young authors from around the globe, apparently trying to make this issue relevant for the booklet's target audience. But Patry wonders if "the idea of transference [could] be at play, a desire to have children identify with young authors their own age (or others they are told they 'admire') and then transfer that identification to multinational corporate copyright owners? I don't defend piracy if defined as counterfeiting, but I think we have to be very careful not to manipulate young children under the guise of educating them."

Still, even Patry admits that WIPO "has made a genuine effort to present a balanced view." Given the criticism the group comes up for when it overreaches in favor of copyright owners, it's only fair to pat them on the back when such issues are handled with more fairness.